Fine Art Auction Sales Reach $7.5 Billion on the Strength of Blue-Chip Collections

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Masterpiece collections filled with impressionist and modern art from the estates of major 20th-century collectors dominated the sales of the top three auction houses this year, helping to push total results for fine art up 14.7% to a record US$7.5 billion, according to a report this week from ArtTactic, a London-based art analysis firm.

The story for Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips was different in the contemporary sector as sales of established contemporary art slipped 14.3% to nearly US$1.6 billion this year, while works by young contemporary artists (under 45 years old)—which had soared in 2021—fell nearly 23% to US$305.3 million, ArtTactic said. 

The Paul G. Allen Collection, the Macklowe Collection, the Bass Collection, the Ammann Collection and the David Solinger Collection accounted for nearly 31% of total auction sales last year. That compares to 2021, when collections drove 19.3% of sales at the top auction houses, while in 2020, they drove only 6.8% of sales. ArtTactic sales figures do not include fees. 

Single-owner collections drove results particularly for impressionist and modern art. 

Impressionist art in the Allen collection realized US$740.4 million, more than 40% of a record US$1.72 billion in total sales for the category. That total is up 80% from a year earlier, ArtTactic said. The leading artists were Claude Monet, whose works sold for a total $463.5 million, and Vincent van Gogh, whose works sold for US$166.3 million. 

In the modern art sector, collections drove 27.5% of the more than US$2 billion in total sales—a result that’s 15.5% higher from a year earlier. Works by Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, and Francis Bacon led this category. Phillips, with a reputation for focusing on contemporary and ultra-contemporary art, noted in its year-end news release that its sales of modern works at auction rose 50% last year, with a 150% rise in the average value of each work. 

While results for the contemporary art category fell year over year, works by post-war artists such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, and Lucian Freud rose 15.4% to US$1.48 billion in total sales. Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, 1964, which sold for US$170 million, before fees, in May, had something to do with that. 

The total results indicate resilience for the market in the face of geopolitical and economic challenges that persisted throughout the year and are likely to shape 2023. Whether next year’s results will be as strong could hinge on whether more collections emerge on the market, the report said. 

Demand for art will continue to be strong for high-priced works, but sellers may be wary of coming to market in the face of so much global uncertainty, ArtTactic added.

“There are enough people with sufficient wealth to buy art—even in times of economic crisis, but there may not be sufficient people willing to sell,” the report said. 

At a Christie’s news conference earlier this week on its results for the year, Giovanna Bertazzoni, vice chair of 20th- and 21st-century art, said a number of “historical” collections are anticipated to “come to the fore” in 2023 that Christie’s will aim to sell. Also, the market may see several masterpieces come to market through the resolution of restitution claims, she said.

Bertazzoni pointed to Christie’s March sale in London of Franz Marc’s The Foxes (Die Füchse), 1913, for £42.7 million (US$57 million). The painting by the German expressionist was owned by German-Jewish banker Kurt Grawi from 1928 to 1940, before he sold it to raise funds to support his family after fleeing Nazi Germany. It was later gifted to the Städtische Kunstsammlung, in Düsseldorf, Germany (The Municipal Art Collection) in 1962, where it remained until it was restituted to Grawi’s heirs in March 2021.

The Foxes was “an important watershed in the institutional community,” Bertazzoni said, and could lead to more museum sales of restituted works.